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Cross
Birth Name: Edmund Isaac Nadelmann *'Aliases:' Zach, Erich, Mr. Glass, Dr. Colette, Stitches, Izzy, Mulligan, Stickey Joe, Dr. Richard, Stacey, J. Leeroy, Force, Lewis , William Cross. *'Gender:' Male *'Age:' 32 *'Height:' 5'6" *'Theme Song: Sweet Dreams' *'Occupation:'Eclipse's Pianist, dealer, alcoholic, Piano tuner, Brown's Punching Bag *'Faction: '''Funk Mafia, former Square *'Playlist: Here History Edmund came to Step City with his adoptive parents in '78 from Leipzig, his father a construction engineer and his mother a psychoacoustics researcher on the STEP project. He grew up interested in his parent's work, and developed a keen love for playing piano which was nurtured along by the pre V-day testing boosts. The arrival of V-day itself seemingly brought him nothing. He wasn't in the research tower when the blastwave started, but survived despite relative proximity. When the remaining scientists attempted to stop the mayhem, Nadelmann Sr. figured this island was going tits up for anarchy. The Steppers were powerful - so the last thing he wanted to be was associated with the labcoats. His mother thought differently. Edmund took on an alias with his father and disappeared conveniently. While the survivors slowly polarized into factions, Edmund 'Tailor' came to realize he was not in fact jamdeaf. Discovering his abilities only brought him a sense of shame, so he remained publically jamdeaf. He wasn't going to pick a side and explain to people his power was self-harm. Or that it kind of felt good. That was crazy even for his troublemaking standards. He studied anything he could about psychology and sound, hoping to better understand how the vibe affected people - his father helped in that regard. Edmund eventually came out about his vibe to one close friend (and babysitter), named Andy. The two became even better friends, more like family, and stuck together despite their age gap. When the Dance War errupted - Phoenix and Edmund fought side by side until things really got bad. They got separated, each thinking the other was dead. Edmund had to take on another alias to hide, and if not for his wound-taking ability, death might also have been Phoenix's fate before they were split up. It took till present day for them to finally run into one another again. Cross's vibe had changed him, a bit unfairly since it's hard to remain a saint when your power is hurt. He'd also grown wilder and an alcoholic, but somehow their friendship is still there. Phoenix is probably the best influence on his life right now, including giving him a legit job and a place to sleep. Phoenix's loyalty to the Funk Mafia was the major factor in getting Cross to pick a side. Up until that point, he had played the 'square' to turn a profit, hawking goods and fonk between factions using his alleged squaredom as a convenient tool. When he had chosen to use his vibe, it was for occasional jobs as painful gambling debt collector. The protection of the mafia is probably what's keeping his ass from a good permanent kicking now. If loyalty is ever called into question, Cross's is solely to the Phoenix himself. '''SINCE THE FLARE: A lot of things have happened. Most of which made little to no impact on Cross's me-firs attitude, much to everyone's continued frustration. A burst appendix finally caught up with him once his vibe vanished. He considers himself indebted to Jack Daily for intervening and bringing him to the hospital, but it is a payment he is not unhappy to return. He may be an asshole, but he didn't last this long without trading fairly from time to time. Phoenix got himself an uncontrolled wish vibe. This did the most damage (or repairs, arguably). Once Cross wished himself near to death with alcohol while still in the hospital, the effects of the hospital staff's wishes, his friends, and his own propelled him out of his medical situation much faster (Help from Dr. Strife kept him well enough to get to this point), got him back home, and out of his addictive needs. ...well not really. He went near-mad for a while being unable to drink anything without it tasting like pure bile. A few sarcastic wishes of his own and he jinxed everything. Found himself disgusted at his newfound responsible behaviour. He can't drink like he used to, he second guesses all of his wants for bad habits, and in Phoenix's hintings at wanting a child, Cross somehow came to be the one to adopt Alan. At this point he's an awkward single parent. It's unclear if he will slip into his old habits or scare everyone by successfully reforming into a productive member of mafia society. Against his own best intentions... but he does intend... does...n't... want to. (The question of free will when one has edited one's own behaviour is a conundrum Cross has so far been unable to solve.) Personality Cross is terrible. He's a good man in there somewhere, but it's a bit lost in a fog of self-defined morality that rubs some folks the wrong way (if he isn't rubbing them himself). He's sharp when he's lucid - given his penchant for alcohol that most distilleries would liken to winning the lottery, he's not lucid often. He rolls with his weirdness and takes pleasure in just watching people's reactions to it. This doesn't mean he's not crafty or intelligent - he just doesn't choose to be bothered acting like it most of the time. The Good Man is finally getting some time outdoors now that the alcohol isn't drowning him out, and it's confusing everyone. Especially Cross. Dance \ Vibe style Discofox, tap dance, tectonik (when hes drunk) , jumpstyle, and boogie woogie, all of which he will typically blend into various quirky hybrids. These are his favourites and build vibe fastest. He can work slower dances like classic waltz, but on their own he finds them poor for any combat vibe needs. He's getting better at them now that he's Mafia aligned. Cross is an absolute piece of shit at shuffling and it's funny. His vibe ability is the manipulation of damage and pain. Between himself and another, to anywhere on the body, so long as equivalence is maintained. His abilities are not fully realized, with much of his focus spent mastering 'masking' his injuries. This allows him a 'hidden weapon' in combat. Though dangerous, he is much more likely to take on injuries from teammates at his own risk, since his risk is comparatively minimal. His main limitation is distance - Cross needs proximity to transfer damage cheaply (body contact is best, clothes impede only minimally). The more distance, the more vibe he forces to push the transfer, meaning he runs the risk of leaving himself unable to mask should he actually attempt a long shot. He will not overextend like this unless absolutely necessary. Masking: Masked wounds don't heal, and relaxing his vibe causes them to return as last seen. Though he can control what he masks and what he shows, It's ultimately instinctive to protect himself like this. The mask usually remains 'on' by default and costs him surprisingly little. He can focus and 'force' his vibe to heavily mask himself defensively, similar to cringing and tensing oneself before getting punched. Usually though, his masking 'replies' to new injuries much like an adrenaline rush does. Forced masking costs more. He's only working on masking other's pain/damage now, but so far some seem to get a painkiller-like high off of it. He has to be fairly relaxed to get it to work. The amount of time it lasts isn't consistent either, sometimes only as long as he focuses, sometimes it lingers. It's a crapshoot. Transferring damage is easier on his vibe, and constantly transferring the pain is easier still. Damage: Cross manipulates damage readily. Equivalence is an inexact science, but at it's simplest he can take several small injuries and pool them together, or break a larger, possibly life-threatening wound into a wide swath of safer bruises. He can move a broken leg to be a broken arm - in the world of dance this can be a godsend. This transmuting within a single subject is fairly 'cheap' to do. Damage transfer ''(between-subjects) is the more expensive functions of his vibe, to the point where it quickly becomes inefficient to attempt at distances exceeding five feet. Cross doesn't understand why, but moving damage to someone's brain seems to be incredibly difficult to do. It feels like trying to push damage to somebody ''very far away. He believes that one's vibe and one's mind might be closely linked, so perhaps he is fighting against their vibe and that's why it's so difficult. Pain: Pain is, when kept to small 'doses', can be one of the cheapest uses of Cross's vibe pool. The greater the pain however, the greater the cost. Even so, it is cheap enough that Cross can transfer it to an opponent even at some distance. 25 feet seems to be the threshold where that, too, begins to get difficult. His opponent remains in pain so long as Cross focuses - since in a natural situation pain would be caused by damage, any pain given won't persist once Cross stops focusing - there's nothing causing it. Cross can 'steal' pain too, which is what he does rather than mask a friend - it too is a 'channeled' ability, relying on his focus and returning to the user once he stops. Cross can only give pain if he has pain himself. So as long as he is hurt - masked or not - and has vibe, he can use this ability. He can never transfer more pain at once than he is capable of experiencing at once, so the less you injure him, the less horrible this ability is. Healing Cross: Don't force him into a vendy. He can't always control his masking when his injuries are affected. His vibe gets very defensive when anything tinkers with his health's state. The result, when cornered, is a tearing out of molten amber vibe energy along with everything he's stubbornly hiding away. It leaves him very dull feeling. Sick if he had a good amount of vibe stored or many injuries. Default (free) vendy settings are the worst for this. It's unknown what would happen if Cross were forced into healing while masking a lethal amount of damage. He's worked out a staggered heal-cycle option that gives him a chance to calm down and unmask injuries in portions, since the machines seem to go for unmasked cuts as priority. He still finds it hard to stay relaxed inside the stupid things. A good rule of thumb is if his vibe's gold colour is showing up in his eyes, mouth, and over injuries even when idle, he's severely injured. Relationships Phoenix - Cross's friend and companion since childhood. Saw him through moving to the city, through V day, through losing his mother, and later his father through the dance war. He thought Phoenix had died. And now he's gone again. That hurt once. That hurt ''again, ''and Cross doesn't feel pain properly anymore. Alan - William was not the one who went in looking for a child, but the acoustically gifted, vocally challenged little kid managed to stab the man right in the heart. In a good way mind you. Cross couldn't let a fellow square cast aside like jamdeaf gunfodder sit there being alone. Apparently even Cross is capable of sympathy. It drives him nuts. Alan really is a great little guy though. Frankie - Temptingly easy to drive nuts, even easier to get drunk. Cross finds Frankie's mood-swingy nature to be utterly fascinating, though he almost always plays tactically stupid around the guy. He knows enough that there's competence underneath that bubbling exterior, buuuuuut... getting horrendously drunk with him has still proven more fun than worrying. For now. Hehe. Jack - She is so beautiful and she doesn't appear to understand just what that implies in a world with people like Cross. He also knows Frankie would kill him if he tried anything. Mr. Brown - Who? After an awkward introduction, Cross accepted a paid, private job offer as Brown's sparring partner. Dustin - Damn good dancer, and he knows what to do when shit gets bad. Still can't decide whether he's bi or just really nice. Cross clearly has too much time on his hands playing these guessing games. Shandrel - Really intriguing. They accomplish the same thing for others, yet their vibes go about it in opposite ways. Cross finds Shandrel to be exceedingly friendly toward his supposed enemies, especially considering how valuable a true healing vibe is these days. For the most part he likes the 'science' they do but he is learning things about his enemies' resources too. He feels Shandrel is putting himself in a dangerous position. Especially since he was asked to attempt to convert Shandrel to FM, else a hit would be put out. Cross would not want to see someone so harmless, with a gift like that, be killed on account of his own 'incompetence'. Sweet - He's a fun guy and by the looks of it, an utter pacifist. Can't blame him with a vibe like that. After That One Party, Cross will not be selling Sweet Fonk. Might call him up for a party invite though. Guy looks cute in just a tie. GoggleZ - A friend of the Phoenix is a friend of Cross. That's how it started out anyway. He played nice and they got along rather well - unfortunately for GG, 'playing nice' is really only one facet of William, and she was introduced to the messier side after far too many drinks. It's a strange love-hate dance she does, and he just makes it worse by being a godawful person who does the right thing when lives get threatened. Yuki - Written off as 'not too bright' originally, Cross liked to mess with this man. It was something they shared; both trying the other's patience to see how much they could get away with on any given day. Out for drinks, sharing absinthe and jive on good days, stealing said jive and wrecking each others moods on bad ones. Usually after anything serious, either one let the other off the hook, or assisted them to a vendy. Cross underestimated Yuki's capacity for violence after a very disgusting incident that earned Cross the nickname Skittlefountain since being uploaded to step city's internet. Cross will make a point not to provoke people when jamdeaf for a good long time. Miscellaneous Information Cross took royal conservatory piano for many years in his youth, and has since picked up skills with other instruments. The only one that he comes close to in his skill on piano is the trumpet - his is silver. Also this. Cross cannot mask while unconscious. Cross can be left terrifyingly vulnerable when he's asleep. He shares part of Phoenix's vibe scar, and it costs him a lot of rest. He originally started drinking to numb himself of it. He gets regular nosebleeds. Snorting fonk probably didn't help but he's always had them. His vibe has changed his perception of pain. Long-lasting suffering wears on him the same, but most quick accidents and especially masked wounds, just leave a living buzz he's grown really appreciative of. He still considers it pain, but his new tolerance for it is distressing. Cross likes naming things. A lot. His music player is Fabio, his trumpet Drianna, acoustic guitar Matilda, his Eclipse uniform's helmet Guy, and his rubber mafioso duck, Clancey. His phones are Major Tom and (mein handy) Dandy. Category:Funk Mafia Category:Characters Category:Cross